Understanding the soot reduction associated with injection timing variation in a small-bore diesel engine

This study shows the in-cylinder soot reduction mechanism associated with injection timing variation in a small-bore optical diesel engine. For the three selected injection timings, three optical-/laser-based imaging diagnostics were performed to show the development of high-temperature reaction and soot within the cylinder, which include OH* chemiluminescence, planar laser–induced fluorescence of hydroxyl and planar laser–induced incandescence. In addition, detailed soot morphology analysis was conducted using thermophoresis-based soot particle sampling from two locations within the piston bowl, and the subsequent analysis of transmission electron microscope (TEM) images of the sampled soot aggregates was also conducted. The results suggest that when fuel injection timing is varied, ambient gas temperature makes a predominant effect on soot formation and oxidation. This is primarily combustion phasing effect as the advanced fuel injection moved the start of combustion closer to the top dead centre, and therefore, soot formation and oxidation occurred at elevated ambient gas temperature. There was an overall development pattern of in-cylinder soot consistently found for three injection timings of this study. The planar laser–induced incandescence images showed that a few small soot pockets first appear around the jet axis, which promptly grow into large soot regions behind the head of the flame marked planar laser–induced fluorescence of hydroxyl. The soot signals disappear due to significant oxidation induced by surrounding OH radicals. When the injection timing is advanced, the soot formation becomes higher as indicated by higher total laser–induced incandescence coverage, increased sampled particle counts and larger and more stretched soot aggregate structures. However, soot oxidation is also enhanced under this elevated ambient temperature environment. At the most advanced injection timing of this study, the enhanced soot oxidation outperformed the increased soot formation with both peak laser–induced incandescence signal coverage and late-cycle coverage showing lower values than those of more retarded injection timings.